Viant often gets compared a lot to The Trade Desk. Yet the big things we're working on are so different... 🤔
The Trade Desk:1. Scale2. Prep for Google Exit3. Promote & protect objectivity more4. Leverage supply and demand imbalance5. Make CTV most effective channel6. Audio best year ever7. Move 100% of clients to KoKai8. Change the way industry manages Deals9. AI10. Simplify Retail Offering11. Simplify TTD platform12. Use more data13. JBPs14. Grow Product Success15. Hire Sr. Leadership
Viant Technology:1. CTV2. Addressability3. AI

Viant Technology 3/3/25 Q4 2024 Earnings call recap.Based solely based on the earnings transcript and suplemental earnings presentation available on Viant Technology's Investor Relations page.

Lift & Incrementality: Why Smaller Brands See Bigger Gains 🚀
We constantly get asked for "Lift Benchmarks". One of the biggest misconceptions in marketing is assuming incrementality and lift are the same for every brand. But the truth is, the more nuanced the brand, the greater the potential lift (the more you REALLY need marketing).
Let's break it down:
If I launched "Steve's T-Shirt" company tomorrow (selling AdTech themed incrementally shirts ofcourse), a well-optimized campaign would yield 99%+ incremental lift. Why? Because nobody would know my brand (and maybe a little because most marketers are not yet "aware" of the value of incrementality quite yet - but that's beside the point) and therefore ain't nobody naturally going to my website or thinking about my product. Every new ad exposure has a higher chance of creating demand that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
Now take Coca-Cola. No single campaign is going to double their market share—because everyone is already aware of the Coke brand. Their marketing is about maintaining share, reinforcing brand preference, and nudging consumption frequency. The lift would be tiny, but at their scale, even a 1% increase in sales is massive.
✅ Smaller, niche brands? Expect bigger incremental lift from marketing—because you're actively creating new demand.✅ Mass-market, high-awareness brands? Gains are smaller but still meaningful—because the battle is for market share and retention.
The key takeaway? Lift and incrementality aren't just about measuring campaign success; they tell you how much marketing actually matters for your business. Instead of chasing a generic benchmark, focus on:
🔹 How much new demand your campaigns are actually driving🔹 Whether your budget is creating net-new customers or just capturing existing intent🔹 How different channels contribute to the bigger picture of your brand growth
Not all lift is created equal—understanding YOUR brand's baseline is what separates good marketing from great marketing. 🚀
#Marketing hashtag#Incrementality #LiftAnalysis #DigitalMarketing #AdTech #GrowthMarketing #Advertising #MarketingStrategy

CTR is the Most Misleading & Overused Metric in Marketing 🚨
Just because someone clicked doesn't mean they were interested, and just because someone didn't click, it doesn't mean they weren't interested… for example:
✅ Mobile ads almost always have a higher CTR than desktop/laptop. Looking at the last ~5B ad impressions across the Viant DSP, Mobile smartphones yield 27% higher CTR than desktop/laptops—not because they necessarily perform better, but because the ad takes up a larger percentage of the screen, and people are far more likely to have a "fat finger" moment.
✅ Brand-building channels like CTV & Audio have 0% CTR but drive far more impact in awareness, consideration, and long-term growth.
✅ Think about your own shopping habits: out of all the transactions you make each month, how many happen because you paused, clicked an ad, and then bought something? The reality is (in a DSP), it's less than 2%. Yet, I see marketers all to often basing a significant portion of their spend decisions solely on CTR 🤔
🔍 Let's break it down:Imagine you're running two campaigns:1️⃣ A mobile display ad with a 2% CTR—but half the clicks are accidental due to ad size and screen placement.2️⃣ A Connected TV ad with a 0% CTR (it's kinda hard to click on an ad on your TV)—but it influenced thousands of future searches, site visits, and purchases.
Which one actually drove new demand?
💡 What Should Marketers Focus On Instead?✅ Incrementality: Did the ad actually influence behavior, or was the conversion happening anyway? (Use a Universal Pixel with multiple Events like page view, add to cart, and purchase to measure true outcomes.)✅ Revenue & LTV Impact: Are you acquiring high-value customers, or just paying for low-intent clicks?✅ Media Mix Effectiveness: Are you investing in channels that create demand—not just capturing it?
If you're optimizing for clicks instead of business outcomes, you're leaving money on the table. Use your marketing dollars to build a BRAND, not to generate CLICKS, and watch your ROI 🚀


#Marketing hashtag#DigitalMarketing #CTR #AdTech #GrowthMarketing #Advertising #PerformanceMarketing #MediaBuying #MarketingStrategy #CTV

I've seen it happen time and time again—marketers compare performance across one partner to the next, but when looking at incremental lift, things can often look too good to be true. Upon digging in, more times than not, the control group used in the incrementality test wasn't actually comparable.
If you're running an incrementality test, choosing the right control group is critical. Pick the wrong one, and your lift results could be completely misleading.
Let's take In-N-Out as an example. It's only in four states. If In-n-Out's marketing team ran a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) using people throughout the U.S. as the control group, of course, they'd see huge lift—because someone in Wisconsin, New York, or Florida is far less likely to walk into a Southern California location. But does that actually tell you if your marketing worked? No—it's just bad methodology.
✅ The key to an accurate lift test? Your control group must be as SIMILAR as possible to your test group.
The 3 Main Types of Control Groups & Their Trade-Offs
1️⃣ Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) 🎯
People are randomly assigned to test or control.
Pros: The historical Gold standard for causal measurement, eliminates selection bias.Cons: If not carefully designed, can create control groups that aren't truly comparable (like our In-N-Out example).
2️⃣ Public Service Announcement (PSA) Holdout 🎗️
Instead of suppressing ads for the control group, they're shown a neutral PSA ad (like an anti-smoking campaign).
Pros: Ensures the control group has a similar ad experience, avoiding exposure bias.Cons: Labor-intensive and financially expensive—you're allocating precious media spend to creative that isn't even your own. Plus, it doesn't perfectly isolate the ad's impact, since both groups are still being served media.
3️⃣ Ghost Bidding 👻
Fact: 80% of all auctions are lost—Ghost Bidding leverages the users who you've targeted but never won an ad.
Pros: Keeps everything identical—same audience, same placements, same media dynamics. The new Gold standard. 🏅Cons: More complex to execute and requires demand-side platform (DSP) support & tech.
Why Similarity in Control Groups Matters🔹 If your control group isn't exposed to the same purchase opportunities, your lift results will be artificially inflated.🔹 The closer your test and control groups are in demographics, geography, and behavior, the more reliable your incrementality results will be.🔹 The best approach depends on your campaign, but bad control groups = bad insights.
If your control group isn't truly comparable to your test group, you're not measuring lift—you're measuring a flawed experiment. 🏆
#Incrementality #LiftStudies #MarketingMeasurement #AdTech #DigitalMarketing #RCT #MarketingScience #Advertising #GrowthMarketing

Over the past decade, we've all witnessed a massive shift from Linear TV to Programmatic CTV. Here are the three biggest reasons I'm seeing as to why:
1️⃣ Precision Targeting & Personalization 🎯Linear TV relies on broad demographic data, but CTV allows advertisers to leverage first-party data, behavioral insights, and real-time optimizations. This means more relevant ads delivered to the right audience at the right time—maximizing ROI.
2️⃣ Better Measurement & Attribution 📊Unlike traditional TV, which relies on panel-based measurement, Programmatic CTV provides granular analytics on impressions, engagement, and conversions. Marketers can track performance in real time and tie ad spend directly to business outcomes (hello, closed-loop attribution!).
3️⃣ Increased Flexibility, Cost Efficiency & Frequency Control 💰Linear TV requires upfront commitments and fixed placements, but CTV allows for dynamic budget adjustments, automated bidding, and real-time optimizations—ensuring every dollar works harder. Plus, with proper frequency capping, CTV prevents ad fatigue—so grandma doesn't have to see the same ad 100 times on her favorite channel.
Only $63B annual Linear advertising dollars left for marketers to realize this and make the shift…
#CTV #ProgrammaticAdvertising #Marketing #AdTech #DigitalMarketing #ConnectedTV

🚀 Fun Facts About Attribution & Ad Spend 🚀✅ Search, Social, & Display almost always attribute the MOST conversions & LOWEST CPA – but don't be fooled!✅ CTV (Connected TV) almost always drives the highest impact on awareness, consideration, AND highest incremental lift 📈 Why?🔍 Studies show that over half of Google searches come from consumers already intending to buy. Try typing "Chipotle" into your browser—it likely gets routed through a search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). Search gets the last touch credit, ignoring the channels that actually drove awareness and consideration.📲 Social media is great at serving ads for products you were already going to buy, but it doesn't capture what sparked that interest in the first place—again, getting last-touch credit.🖥️ Display ads have far more impressions than CTV, so there's simply a higher chance they appear last before a conversion. What Does This Mean for Marketers?🚨 Many marketers focus too much on basic metrics like CTR and CPA, while neglecting impact-driving channels like CTV & Audio. ⚖️ Last-touch attribution treats a 30-second ad on a 65-inch TV the same as a banner ad you scrolled past in 0.2 seconds on your phone. 💰 In 2024, marketers spent ~$132 BILLION on just Google Search & $160 BILLION on Meta's social media entities 🤔 It's time to rethink attribution and invest in channels that actually drive consumer behavior. 💡 #Marketing #Advertising #CTV #DigitalMarketing #Attribution #AdTech #GrowthMarketing #GoogleSearch #GoogleSEO #MetaMeasurement

Most marketers measure "performance", but are you measuring true impact? Incrementality measurement is the key to knowing whether your marketing efforts actually drive results—or if you're just paying for outcomes that would've happened anyway.
For example, if McDonald's stopped advertising tomorrow, people would still go to McDonald's because it's lunch time and they are hungry. So, it begs the question, did the consumer go to McDonald's because they were influenced by marketing, or because they are hungry. Only through incrementality measurement can a true answer be derived.
Here's why every marketer should be using it:🔹 Eliminate Wasted SpendAre your ads bringing in new customers, or just capturing those who were going to convert anyway? Incrementality testing helps you cut inefficiencies and reallocate budget to what really works.🔹 Prove Marketing's True ValueAttribution models can be misleading, but incrementality isolates cause and effect. This means you can confidently show leadership how much revenue your efforts actually generate.🔹 Optimize with ConfidenceInstead of relying on vanity metrics, incrementality tells you where to invest more, where to pull back, and how to scale profitably. No more guesswork—just data-driven decisions.
In a world of rising ad costs and complex customer journeys, incrementality isn't a nice-to-have—it's a must.
#marketing #growth #incrementality #attribution #digitalmarketing

🚀 Why Every Brand Marketer & Agency Needs AI Bidding in Their #DSP 🚀
Think about it: Brand Marketers and Publishers priorities simply don't align.
Brand Priorities:✅ Deliver the budget in full!✅ Maintain even pacing✅ Optimize reach & frequency✅ Target the right audience✅ Achieve performance outcomes✅ Ensure attribution & measurement✅ Get fair pricing
Publisher Priorities:✅ Maximize revenue!
Here's the problem: without AI Bidding, #publishers and #SSPs will gladly take your money—often due to overbidding.
AI Bidding ensures smarter, data-driven bids that prevent wasted ad spend while still hitting performance goals. If you're not using it, you're leaving efficiency (and budget) on the table.
#AdTech #ProgrammaticAdvertising #DigitalMarketing #AI #MarketingStrategy #Advertising hashtag #MediaBuying #MarTech #AIinMarketing hashtag #DataDrivenMarketing

Retargeting: The Illusion of "Performance" When escalations land on my desk for low or nonexistent incremental lift, the first thing that comes to mind is targeting settings. More often than not, the culprit is the same: Retargeting past purchasers.These campaigns always look great on the surface—high conversion rates, strong ROAS, glowing performance reports you proudly share with your boss or client direct. But when we measure incremental lift, it's a different story. Compared to its ghost bid control group (similar past purchasers audience who DIDN'T see your ad), retargeting past buyers rarely drives meaningful incremental impact.Why? Because it doesn't create demand—it simply takes credit for what was already going to happen. For example: Think about your weekly grocery run—you're already loyal to many brands. Whether you see an ad or not, you're still buying that same coffee, cereal, or detergent next week. The result? A campaign that looks great on paper but delivers zero real impact for the marketer.Retargeting Feels Effective, But Is It Really?✅ It inflates attribution – Retargeting claims credit for conversions that would have happened anyway.✅ It creates the illusion of success – High CTRs, strong conversion rates, and a killer ROAS—but is it actually growing revenue?✅ It diverts budget from true demand creation – Instead of funding campaigns that attract new customers, brands chase easy wins on a dashboard.When Does Retargeting Actually Make Sense?🔹 Re-engaging high-intent users – If someone browsed but didn't act (user page views & cart abandoners), a well-timed nudge can help.🔹 Shifting the strategy for existing customers – Instead of wasting budget "converting" past purchasers, use retargeting to push brand messaging, new product launches, or loyalty incentives.The Hard TruthMarketers, it's time for a reality check. ROAS and conversion rates don't mean a thing if your incremental lift is near zero.I get it—those numbers look good on a report. They make stakeholders happy. They make media buyers feel like they're winning. But if your campaign isn't driving true incremental revenue, you're just reallocating credit, not growing the business. Stop optimizing for vanity metrics. Start optimizing for the bottom line.The only metric that matters? Incremental lift. Because if your marketing isn't creating new demand, what's the point? 🚀#MarketingMeasurement #Incrementality #AdTech #Retargeting #DigitalMarketing #GrowthMarketing #Attribution #MediaBuying #MarketingStrategy